Bajaj Housing Finance Ltd Q4 FY2026 Concall Summary & Transcript Notes

Source transcript PDF: https://www.stockscans.in/document/xe5le4auhg0xigptvhhdimvd.pdf

# 1. Financial Performance

## A. Key Figures
   *   **Assets Under Management (AUM):** **₹140,000 Cr+** Total (+23%) · **₹7,294 Cr** Q4 Addition
   *   **Net Interest Income (NII):** **₹3,752 Cr** FY26 (+25%)
   *   **Net Total Income (NTI):** **₹4,391 Cr** FY26 (+23%)
   *   **Profit After Tax (PAT):** **₹669 Cr** Q4 (+14% reported / +20% normalized)
   *   **Margins & Spreads:** **3.8%** NIM · **1.7%** Gross Spreads

## B. Revenue & AUM Growth
   *   **Diversified Portfolio Momentum:** Robust double-digit AUM growth was led by a surge in **Lease Rental Discounting (44%)** and **LAP (24%)**, offsetting competitive intensity in the core Home Loan segment.
   *   **Market Resilience:** Total AUM reached the upper end of management's assessment range despite significant portfolio attrition and aggressive market pricing.

## C. NII & Fee Income
   *   **Yield Compression Mitigated:** While NIMs and spreads moderated due to lower acquisition pricing, the impact was cushioned by a significant jump in fee income to **₹297 Cr**.
   *   **Strategic Income Drivers:** Fee growth was primarily fueled by **insurance and foreclosure income**, while assignment income was utilized as a tactical lever to manage balance sheet leverage.

## D. Opex & Efficiency
   *   **Operational Leverage:** Significant improvement in the Opex-to-NTI ratio outperformed initial guidance, reflecting enhanced scale and cost discipline.
   *   **Profitability Buffers:** Management intends to counter yield pressure through continued opex efficiencies and a projected reduction in credit costs to **10–11 basis points**.

## E. Profitability & Returns
   *   **Normalized Earnings Strength:** Underlying profitability remains strong; normalized PAT growth reached **20%** after adjusting for a prior-year one-time tax benefit of **₹34 Cr**.
   *   **Capital Strategy:** Net worth reached **₹22,527 Cr**; management plans to utilize increased leverage to drive ROE expansion, while prioritizing the retention of home loans on-book to maximize long-term returns.

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# 2. Loan Book & Asset Quality

## A. Key Figures
   *   **Portfolio Mix:** **54.1%** Home Loans · **22.4%** LRD · **11.5%** DF · **10.8%** LAP
   *   **Asset Quality:** **27 bps** GNPA (Flat QoQ/-2 bps YoY) · **11 bps** NNPA (Flat QoQ)
   *   **Credit Cost:** **19 bps** Annualized Quarterly · **17 bps** Full-Year
   *   **Provisioning:** **~60%** PCR · **99.37%** Stage 1 Assets

## B. Portfolio Composition & Trends
   *   **Strategic Diversification:** The book remains anchored by home loans, though recent sequential growth was driven by **Lease Rental Discounting (LRD)** and **Loan Against Property (LAP)** segments.
   *   **Segmented Asset Quality:** Performance varies by product, with the **LRD segment** maintaining zero defaults, while home loans and LAP reported GNPA of **35 bps** and **46 bps** respectively.

## C. Provisioning & Credit Costs
   *   **Prudential Strengthening:** Management proactively increased Stage 2 provisioning by **6%** as a macro-environment buffer; excluding this and prior-year overlay releases, underlying credit costs remain stable.
   *   **Enhanced Coverage:** Year-on-year credit cost increases reflect a deliberate strategy to strengthen the Provisioning Coverage Ratio (PCR) across both Stage 2 and Stage 3 assets.

## D. Customer Credit Profiles
   *   **Improving Risk Metrics:** Internal data and quarterly bureau scrubs indicate a downward trend in first and early bounce rates across all segments, including prime and affordable housing.
   *   **Positive Outlook:** Early data for **April 2026** suggests continued stability in bounce rates, with no evidence of micro-level stress within the portfolio.

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# 3. Funding & Liquidity Mix

## A. Key Figures
   *   **Yield & Spread:** **-14 bps** sequential yield contraction · **-10 bps** spread moderation
   *   **Liability Mix:** **49%** Money Market · **41%** Bank Borrowings · **10%** NHB Refinance
   *   **Floating Rate Exposure:** **63%** of total borrowings (including OIS impact)

## B. Borrowing Cost Trends
   *   **Spread Compression:** Sequential margins tightened as yield contraction outpaced the marginal reduction in funding costs.
   *   **Near-Term Outlook:** Management expects funding costs to remain stable or see a marginal **2–3 bps** reduction, aided by NHB refinance resets and the maturity of high-cost legacy NCDs.
   *   **Rate Cycle Dynamics:** The era of Prime Lending Rate (PLR) cuts has likely concluded; portfolio repricing is anticipated to trend upward starting in **Q2** as marginal funding costs rise.
   *   **Market Volatility:** Elevated money market and NCD rates observed in March have persisted into **April**, creating a challenging environment for new issuances.

## C. Liability Mix & Strategy
   *   **Diversified Funding:** Supported by a **AAA/Stable** rating, the company shifted its mix toward bank borrowings and NHB refinance to offset a significant reduction in NCD exposure.
   *   **Duration Profile:** Strategy focuses on **3 to 5-year** tenors for NCDs, while Commercial Paper is capped at **~5%** of the book with a short average duration of **5 to 6 months**.

## D. Floating Rate Exposure & Hedging
   *   **OIS Optimization:** The company aggressively uses Overnight Indexed Swaps to convert **7.6%** fixed-rate NCDs into floating-rate debt at approximately **7%**, aligning costs with repo rates.
   *   **Interest Rate Sensitivity:** With a majority floating-rate book, the company maintains the flexibility to pass through cost fluctuations to customers as policy rates evolve.
   *   **Bank Rate Stability:** Unlike volatile money markets, bank lending rates have remained steady as they await official policy rate movements.

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# 4. Segment & Product Performance

## A. Key Figures
   *   **Disbursements:** **₹17,506 Cr** Quarterly (+23% YoY / +6% QoQ)
   *   **Sambhav AUM:** **~₹9,000 Cr** Total Portfolio
   *   **Sambhav Customer Profile:** **28 Lakhs** ATS · **68%** Salaried · **65%** CIBIL >750
   * Loan Book Attrition: **~20%** Total · **~10%** Balance Transfer-out (BT-out)

## B. Sambhav Housing Segment
   *   **Strategic Segmentation:** Business utilizes a dual-hub model, centralizing "near prime" underwriting while maintaining regional hubs for the "affordable" segment.
   *   **Portfolio Composition:** The segment is heavily weighted toward affordable housing, which comprises roughly **70%** of the asset mix.
   *   **Distribution Footprint:** Operations are diversified across **73** primary locations and **72** Tier-4 locations to drive organic growth.

## C. Disbursement & Attrition Dynamics
   *   **Accelerating Momentum:** Quarterly disbursement growth showed sequential improvement, outpacing the growth rate seen in the prior period.
   *   **Attrition Outlook:** While BT-out rates remained elevated through April due to seasonal spillover, management anticipates a downward trend beginning in May.
   *   **Natural Run-off:** Half of the total book attrition is driven by non-competitive factors, including property sales, part payments, and voluntary EMI increases.

## D. Home Loan Dynamics
   *   **Portfolio Strategy:** Future assignment activity is contingent on the growth of the Individual Home Loan (IHL) portfolio and the stabilization of balance transfer rates.
   *   **Growth Focus:** Long-term strategy centers on deepening the prime housing funnel alongside continued investment in the Sambhav segment.

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# 5. Competitive & Market Position

## A. Key Figures
   *   **On-Book Yields (FY26):** **8.5%–8.6%** Home Loans · **7.9%–8.0%** LRD · **11.5%–11.75%** Developer Finance
   *   **Incremental Yields:** **8.05%–8.15%** Home Loan book (Prime/Affordable)
   *   **Capital Strength:** **22.46%** Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) · **60.88%** PBC

## B. Pricing & Yield Dynamics
   *   **Yield Compression Drivers:** Margin softening in the final quarter resulted from intense market rivalry and a strategic pivot toward lower-margin products like home loans and LRD over construction finance.
   *   **Market Positioning:** The firm operates as a "price taker" in the prime segment, maintaining acquisition pricing parity with dominant incumbents like SBI and HDFC Bank.
   *   **Yield Differentials:** Loan Against Property (LAP) yields maintain a premium of approximately **150 basis points** over standard home loan rates.

## C. Peer Competitive Intensity
   *   **Elevated BT-Out Pressure:** High competitive intensity from public and private sector banks in Q4 prevented the anticipated cooling of Balance Transfer-out rates.
   *   **Primary Competitors:** Public sector banks remain the largest recipients of outgoing customers, followed closely by major private institutions.
   *   **Strategic Outlook:** Management treats "irrational" pricing and competition in the prime sector as a permanent structural feature rather than a cyclical trend.

## D. Distribution & Footprint
   *   **Network Expansion:** The company has scaled its physical presence to **226 branches** spanning **182 locations**, backed by a robust capital position.

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# 6. Regulatory & Macro Risks

## A. Key Figures
   *   **Repo-Linked Portfolio:** **₹17,000 Cr** Assets affected by pass-through
   *   **Asset Mix (IHL):** **50.45%** of total assets (vs. **50%** regulatory threshold)
   *   **Rate Sensitivity:** **15–20 bps** pass-through per **25 bps** repo hike
   *   **Market Pricing:** **75 bps** implied policy rate hike priced into OIS market

## B. Policy Rate Sensitivity
   *   **Margin Protection Mechanism:** Spread compression is mitigated by the ability to reprice a large portion of the portfolio following official repo rate adjustments.
   *   **Cost Absorption Risks:** Incremental money market costs are currently being absorbed internally; management lacks the leverage to pass on costs to customers without an official regulatory rate hike.
   *   **Borrowing Cost Outlook:** Future liability costs from Q2 onward remain contingent on whether official policy rates rise to meet market expectations or if money market rates normalize downward.

## C. PBC Requirement Compliance
   *   **Regulatory Adherence:** The company is currently compliant with Principal Business Criteria (PBC), maintaining individual home loans slightly above the mandatory floor.
   *   **Portfolio Rebalancing:** Management actively utilizes the **assignment of non-IHL assets** as a strategic lever to manage the asset mix and ensure thresholds remain within the **50% and 60%** regulatory requirements.

## D. Money Market Volatility & Macro Uncertainty
   *   **Yield Seasonality:** Management noted a historical trend of yields hardening starting in **May**, following the typically lower rates seen in the January–March quarter.
   *   **Guidance Deferral:** Formal forward-looking guidance is suspended until Q1 results, pending clarity on global macroeconomic shifts and the regulator's stance on interest rates.
   *   **Stabilization Potential:** Despite current volatility, a normalization of the market and rate stabilization could occur within **weeks** if the broader macroeconomic scenario settles.

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# 7. Guidance & Outlook

## A. Key Figures
   *   **Monthly Disbursements (Sambhav):** **₹410 Cr – ₹425 Cr** Q4 FY26 avg · **>₹600 Cr** 12-month target
   *   **Growth Target:** **21% – 23%** vs. **9.5%** industry IHL rate
   *   **Return on Assets (ROA):** **2.0% – 2.2%** FY27 guidance · **2.3%** current year-end
   *   **Cost of Funds (CoF):** **3 – 5 bps** expected Q1 benefit

## B. Growth & ROA Targets
   *   **Market Outperformance:** Management aims to maintain a growth stance at **2x** the industry average, specifically targeting the non-IHL segment to sustain momentum above previous year rates.
   *   **ROA Normalization:** FY27 profitability is expected to align with the upper end of medium-term guidance, representing a slight moderation from current levels due to anticipated margin pressure.
   *   **Profitability Levers:** A projected minor decline in ROA is expected to be defended through **operating expense efficiencies** and **controlled credit costs**.
   *   **Ancillary Revenue:** Fee income is projected to scale linearly with overall loan book expansion.

## C. Margin Compression Outlook
   *   **Yield Headwinds:** Yields face pressure from the full-quarter impact of the **15 bps PLR pass-through** and the attrition of older, higher-priced loans being replaced by lower-priced new originations.
   *   **NIM Trajectory:** Net Interest Margins are anticipated to contract throughout the year; however, a potential hike in policy rates remains a key variable that could stall this compression.
   *   **Spread Dynamics:** Spreads are expected to compress from current levels, though the impact will be partially mitigated by the maturity of higher-cost debt.

## D. Strategic Growth & Funding
   *   **Inorganic Strategy:** The company will selectively pursue portfolio acquisitions and co-lending; however, these are viewed as supplemental and will not replace organic home loan growth.
   *   **Borrowing Costs:** CoF is forecasted to remain stable or decrease slightly in the near term, benefiting from a favorable debt maturity profile despite elevated money market rates.